Israeli officials took credit for attacks on Tehran’s military and nuclear facility early Friday morning, even without approval from President Donald Trump or the International Atomic Energy Agency, media outlets like the New York Times reported.
The attack comes just before the United States and Iran were to resume high-level talks over Tehran’s nuclear program in Muscat, Oman on Sunday, according to an Omani foreign minister on X. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video statement from Jerusalem saying Israel attacked Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz and accusing Iran of advancing its nuclear program. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reportedly told the Israeli news outlet Jerusalem Post that Iran will retaliate with a nuclear weapon if struck by Israel.
Also this week, in a draft resolution to the Board of Governors, the International Atomic Energy Agency formally found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations. In response, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a joint statement that the Islamic Republic has “no choice” but to respond to this “political resolution” and build a new enrichment facility “in a secure location.”
The National Nuclear Security Administration announced Tuesday that the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation removed the last of cesium irradiators from Iowa and Nevada last month.
According to an agency press release, cesium irradiators contain cesium-137 can be used for cancer research or for treating blood, but the radioactive material “in the wrong hands” could be used to create a “dirty bomb,” or an improvised nuclear weapon made by combining conventional explosives and radioactive nuclear waste material.
“The safe and successful removal of the last cesium irradiator in Iowa is a major milestone,” Robert Kruse, State Medical Director and Division Director of Public Health at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said in the release. “This enhances public safety in Iowa by preventing radiological threats and advancing long-term security and contributes meaningfully to national radiological security efforts.”
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on June 5 the Trump administration’s detailed fiscal year 2026 budget request will likely not be available for “several more weeks.”
While the White House has put forth a skinny budget outline and an appendix with additional topline details it has yet to provide Congress with a full breakdown of its intended fiscal 2026 spending plans. The delay arrives as Congressional defense authorizers and appropriators are looking to begin work marking up the next National Defense Authorization Act and defense spending bill.
“This is quickly becoming the longest-delayed budget submission in memory, and I urge the White House to deliver it,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the Senate Armed Services ranking member, said during a hearing.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by FBI personnel after being forcibly removed from a press conference Thursday in Los Angeles with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
In a video shared across platform X by many lawmakers, including by former vice president Kamala Harris, Padilla introduces himself and says “I have questions for the Secretary” before being pushed out by people in plain clothes before the FBI takes over. Noem was in Los Angeles among demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Southern California.
“I just saw something that sickened my stomach,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Thursday. “The manhandling of a United States Senator, we need immediate answers to what the hell went on.” Padilla himself, in a statement on X, said “if that’s what they do to a United States Senator with a question, imagine what they can do to any American that dares to speak up. We will hold this administration accountable.”
Los Alamos National Laboratory, in a media tour May 28, coordinated a visit to the Emergency Operations Center, the Interagency Fire Center and the Transuranic Waste Facility to show its operations for mitigating wildfire risk, according to local paper Los Alamos Daily Post.
According to the article, New Mexico is approaching wildfire season while going through a prolonged drought. Jeff Dare, Emergency Management Division Leader, said that the Los Alamos Police Department and Fire Department both hold drills and exercises throughout the year to assist Los Alamos County, Los Alamos Field Office, and the surrounding community that includes the park and forest services and the Pueblo tribes. The area also has a 23,000-gallon groundwater tank, firefighting helicopters, and lumber cut from spacing trees 15-20 feet apart to thin tree canopy.
The team said lessons have been learned from previous fires, including the Cerro Pelado fire of 2022 that burned 45,000 acres and cost over $45 million in damage. “I think we are very well prepared,” Mark Davis, Deputy Director of Operations, said in the article.
The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee have unveiled a bill with sweeping reforms to speed up the Pentagon’s acquisition process, to include overhauling the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and providing the ability to flexibly budget around portfolio areas.
Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the HASC chair and ranking member, respectively, said the bipartisan proposal will be “foundational” to the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. Rogers, specifically, noted the Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery (SPEED) Act “fundamentally reforms” DoD’s “dysfunctional” acquisition system, which he said can take “more than a decade” to go from identifying a requirement to delivering a capability.
“By that time, the threat has changed, the technology is outdated, and the program is over budget. The SPEED Act transforms our acquisition system so that it can fulfill its most important mission: getting our warfighters what they need, when they need it,” Rogers said. The lawmakers said that the SPEED Act, in a broad sense, creates an accelerated requirements process that “cuts the time from identification of a capability gap to a decision on a solution from almost three years to as few as 90 days.”
Richard Johnson, most recently the deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and countering weapons of mass destruction policy under then-president Joe Biden, has joined OpenAI as its national security risk mitigation lead.
Johnson announced that he was “thrilled” by the career shift Wednesday on his LinkedIn page. He has also worked for the Nuclear Threat Initiative as the Senior Director for Fuel Cycle and Verification, the Assistant Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Issues under the President Barack Obama administration, and the Director of Nonproliferation for the National Security Council at the White House, also under Obama.
Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, was previously chairman of the board of nuclear power company Oklo before he stepped down in April. OpenAI has also partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory with aims to advance national security by using OpenAI models on the Los Alamos Venado supercomputer.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on June 2 abruptly canceled an industry summit for the Golden Dome air and missile defense initiative.
The summit was set to occur in downtown Huntsville, Ala., on June 11. MDA said that “an announcement will be made on SAM.gov if/when a new date and location are planned.”
In a previous round, on March 25, MDA originally planned for a summit on April 29 on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, but then on April 9 MDA announced they were moving it to a later date and another location due to “overwhelming response from industry.” This time MDA did not confirm it would still happen at all.
